The Western Siouan languages, also called Siouan proper or simply Siouan, are a large

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in h ...

native to

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

. They are closely related to the Catawban languages, sometimes called Eastern Siouan, and together with them constitute the Siouan (Siouan–Catawban) language family. Linguistic and historical records indicate a possible southern origin of the Siouan people, with migrations over a thousand years ago from

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. Some continued down the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of ...

to the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

and up to the

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. Others went down the Mississippi, settling in what is now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Others traveled across Ohio to what is now Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, home of the Dakota.

Family division

The Siouan family proper consists of some 18 languages and various dialects: *

Mandan The Mandan are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains who have lived for centuries primarily in what is now North Dakota. They are enrolled in the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation. About half of the Mandan still re ...

† ** Nuptare ** Nuetare * Missouri River Siouan (a.k.a. Crow–Hidatsa) ** Crow (a.k.a. Absaroka, Apsaroka, Apsaalooke, Upsaroka) – 3,500 speakers **

Hidatsa The Hidatsa are a Siouan people. They are enrolled in the federally recognized Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. Their language is related to that of the Crow, and they are sometimes considered a paren ...

(a.k.a. Gros Ventre, Minitari, Minnetaree) – 200 speakers * Mississippi Valley Siouan (a.k.a. Central Siouan) ** Mitchigamea? † ** Dakotan (a.k.a. Sioux–Assiniboine–Stoney) ***

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota: /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native American tribes and First Nations peoples in North America. The modern Sioux consist of two major divisions based on language divisions: the Dakota and ...

– 25,000 speakers **** Lakota – 2,100 speakers **** Dakota (sometimes classified as Western and Eastern Dakota) – 290 speakers *** Assiniboine – 150 speakers ***

Stoney Stoney may refer to: Places * Stoney, Kansas, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stoney Creek (disambiguation) * Stoney Pond, a man-made lake located by Bucks Corners, New York * Stoney (lunar crater) * Stoney (Martian crater) ...

– 3,200 speakers ** Chiwere-Winnebago *** Chiwere † *** Winnebago – 250 speakers ** Dhegihan *** Omaha–Ponca – 85 speakers *** Kansa-Osage **** Kansa † **** Osage †, on ongoing revival *** Quapaw – 1 speaker * Ohio Valley Siouan ** Virginia Siouan *** Tutelo † *** Moneton † ** Mississippi Siouan *** Biloxi † ***

Ofo Ofo (), stylised as ofo, was a Beijing-based Bicycle-sharing system, bicycle sharing company founded in 2014. It used a Bicycle-sharing system#Dockless bikes, dockless system with a smartphone app to unlock and locate nearby bicycles, charging ...

† ''(†)'' –

Extinct language An extinct language is a language that no longer has any speakers, especially if the language has no living descendants. In contrast, a dead language is one that is no longer the native language of any community, even if it is still in use, l ...

Another view of both the Dakotan and Mississippi Valley branches is to represent them as

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

s. All the Virginia Siouan dialects listed here are thought to have been closely related to one another; the term Tutelo language is also used in reference to their common tongue.

Writing systems

There are two systems used to transcribe within this family: *

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet or Roman alphabet is the collection of letters originally used by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered with the exception of extensions (such as diacritics), it used to write English and the ...

used by a majority of these languages. *

Osage script The Osage script is a new script promulgated in 2006 and revised 2012–2014 for the Osage language. Because Latin orthographies were subject to interference from English conventions among Osage students who were more familiar with English than ...

, developed in 2005 by Herman Mongrain Lookout. There are also considerations for the script to be extensively usable for other languages in the Dhegiha group to the extent of this family.

Bibliography

* Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L. (2001). "The Siouan languages", in R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), ''Handbook of North American Indians: Plains'' (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94–114). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. . *Rood, David S.; & Taylor, Allan R. (1996). "Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan language", in ''Handbook of North American Indians: Languages'' (Vol. 17, pp. 440–482). Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. * Ullrich, Jan. (2008). ''New Lakota Dictionary: Incorporating the Dakota Dialects of Santee–Sisseton and Yankton–Yanktonai (Lakota Language Consortium)''. .

References

External links

The Siouan Languages Bibliography

Comparative Siouan languages Swadesh vocabulary lists
(from Wiktionary) {{Siouan languages * Indigenous languages of the North American Plains Indigenous languages of the North American Southeast Sioux culture Indigenous languages of North America

Family division

Writing systems

See also

Bibliography

References

External links